I'm surprised only three of us had Vettel as our race winner. Didn't do us any good in the end, thanks to Ferrari's strategic blunder, Gasly and Hartley not knowing how to switch places, and Max being Max, but it seems like the idea that Ferrari are the team to beat hasn't quite caught on yet. Maybe it will after China...

Everyone pile on Lewis winning. It's as big a certainty as you're likely to get.

_________________"Clark came through at the end of the first lap so far ahead that we in the pits were convinced that the rest of the field must have been wiped out in an accident."-Eddie Dennis, describing the dominance of Jim Clark in the Lotus 49 at Spa 1967

I'm surprised only three of us had Vettel as our race winner. Didn't do us any good in the end, thanks to Ferrari's strategic blunder, Gasly and Hartley not knowing how to switch places, and Max being Max, but it seems like the idea that Ferrari are the team to beat hasn't quite caught on yet. Maybe it will after China...

I think this race was pretty much the acid test for Ferrari as the best team. In Australia Merc was arguably the fastest despite losing, and Bahrain is a Ferrari track. But China was a Merc track, and they didn't just lose - they lost on merit.

On the other hand, Vettel is driving pretty poorly this year (barely outpacing Kimi) so I'm not too confident about picking him to win anything either.

First, I'm going to be traveling tomorrow, so the results will be late. They may technically run over into Monday if you're in Europe, but I will try my best to have them up sometime within my Sunday.

Second, I'm going to officially un-classify Multi69 from the championship for not starting a single round. I prefer to get this out of the way some time safely before the knockout cup gets up and running, so four races in feels fair to me.

Good luck everyone! Especially the people who picked Raikkonen to win...

Background image sourced from RaceFans, a picture of a Baku street mural

AZERBAIJAN GRAND PRIX RESULTS

Well now, how to describe that race...

Crazy would be one word, but an overused one this season. Heartbreaking certainly, for some - including those of us who didn't think Hamilton had a shot at winning. Incident filled? Chaotic?

We'll go with 'low scoring'. Due to the overwhelming sentiment after practice that Mercedes was on the back foot this time, very few people put one of the silver cars in first. For much of the race that looked like the right call, with Vettel leading from the lights all the way to his pit stop, at which point he looked certain to rejoin in the lead with at least some advantage over the leading Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas. Things looked set for a Ferrari win, and at least a fair haul of points for most.

UNTIL!

Red Bull Racing struck again, shattering the expected pecking order (albeit in a very different way from last time out in China). The safety car brought about by the 'racing incident' between the two Bulls allowed Bottas to pick up a free pit stop, and when he and Vettel both caught up to the Mercedes being desperately driven by Bernd Mayländer, it was Bottas who was well and truly ahead. At this point we were looking set for a lot of 3-point scores: nobody had Bottas to win, but Vettel was pretty popular for second.

Then it was all turned on its head for the final time: Vettel dived Bottas at turn one, locking up and letting Hamilton and Kimi through. At this point things had gone from bad to worse for most people, with almost nobody set to score on a Mercedes 1-2 in the wrong direction. That little problem was taken care of however when Bottas' tyre exploded, ending his hopes of a well-deserved victory and instead handing the trophy to a somewhat subdued Hamilton who had done virtually nothing to earn it. A bitter individual might say that his victory is an apt allegory for those who profited from it, but since I'm not a bitter person I'll just leave off here...

Not very many people scored, but those that did moved up accordingly. Most significantly, Herb takes the lead of the championship with his 5 points.

Team Standings - Round Four

In the team standings, it's very much an All Hail The Mods moment, because the second mod team of Crisis in Management wins the round! This unexpected result catapults them to third in the team standings, well ahead of their fellow mod team.

CHAMPIONSHIP PICTURE

With Herb in the lead and Jalopy Racing retaining their place atop the standings, things are looking good for the defending champs. However, it bears noting that all these rounds have so far been very chaotic and low-scoring - will a different picture begin to emerge in the European season?

In the team standings, it's very much an All Hail The Mods moment, because the second mod team of Crisis in Management wins the round! This unexpected result catapults them to third in the team standings, well ahead of their fellow mod team.

Well fairy cakes.

Edit: forgot to make my Spanish preditions...

VETRAIHAM

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AlienTurnedHuman wrote:

Eurytus probably thought he was God. At least until he was banned. Which means if he was God, it makes me very scared of PF1-Mod.

_________________"Clark came through at the end of the first lap so far ahead that we in the pits were convinced that the rest of the field must have been wiped out in an accident."-Eddie Dennis, describing the dominance of Jim Clark in the Lotus 49 at Spa 1967

Everyone pile on Lewis winning. It's as big a certainty as you're likely to get.

Told you. I'm cursed at this game since last year, I don't think I've scored more than 10pts since last summer. Doesn't matter how much thought I put into it, the opposite always happens

Any Lewis fans want to bribe me into always picking Seb I'm open to offers...

_________________"Clark came through at the end of the first lap so far ahead that we in the pits were convinced that the rest of the field must have been wiped out in an accident."-Eddie Dennis, describing the dominance of Jim Clark in the Lotus 49 at Spa 1967